Too Late
by Kira31
Summary: As the Assault on Aogiri Tree Operation is put on more and more of a hold, the members of Antieku can only hope that Kaneki can hold on for a bit longer, and hope they aren't too late.


**Too Late**

* * *

"The hell is taking those damn Doves so long?"

The rest of the Anteiku Rescue group glanced over at Touka, her arms crossed over her chest and hood pulled down low over her face. The young woman had been pacing for the past hour, growling and muttering curses at the Doves every now and then.

Irimi lowered her head and closed eyes, focusing for a few seconds before telling the group "It seems like a group of CCG Investigators got held up in another ward, and they are awaiting replacements. It should only be another half hour at most."

"Che," muttered Touka, turning and striking out at a nearby tree with her foot, carving a deep gouge in it. "We've already been waiting a full hour, fucking shitty Doves holding us back." With a growl she returned to her pacing, her hand curling into a fist before uncurling over and over, teeth clenched tighter than a vice. Though she was the only one expressing it, the whole group was clearly on edge. Knowing that with every minute that passed the chances of them finding Kaneki safe dropped lower and lower.

Feeling her sleeve being tugged Touka suddenly turned, seeing Hinami looking up at her, Hinami's eyes were glassy yet they seemed to hold a certain resolve to them. "Nee-chan." She said, as a small smile came over her face , "Nii-san will be alright, I'm sure of it."

Seeing how brave Hinami was despite how nervous she must be, Touka took a deep breath, letting it out and returning Hinami's smile and saying "You're right Hinami." And yet, as the two girls returned to the rest of the group, Touka couldn't help but mentally add a 'I hope.' to that sentence.

* * *

Touka and Nishiki dashed through the hallways, having decided enough time was wasted by the Doves and forgoing stealth after they had already been detected. As they approached the Fifth Building, they noticed a large blonde man in a white suite casually walking through the carnage. Touka's eyes hardened, recognizing the man from weeks before. Seeing him brought...unpleasant memories to the forefront of her mind.

 _Flashback_

 _Returning to consciousness was not a pleasant experience for Touka, she was first greeted by the aches of her body, even shifting her weight caused pangs of it to shoot through her body. Next, she felt the cold floor beneath her, acting as a slight salve to the aches and pains of her body, but causing confusion as well. Why was she on the floor, and not her bed? Even the few times she slept over at Yoriko's house she at least slept on a cot they had given her. She tried to open her eyes to get an understanding of where she was, but the light seemed to be daggers into her eyes, and she quickly closed them. Over time she was slowly able to ease her eyes open, and gasped at the sight in front of her. Anteiku, trashed. The door practically ripped open, and what looked like blood covering every surface of the cafe._

 _As she looked upon the destroyed shop her memories resurfaced, bits and pieces at a time. Her brother, Ayato, had shown up. Beating up Banjou, and then some hulk of a man and his companion showed up. They were trying to take something...what was it? Something...something about a tree? That's not right, they didn't have any trees at Anteiku. What was it then?_

 _Her eyes shot open as she remembered what they were going to take. "KANEKI!" she yelled and ignored the screaming from her body as she stood up. Stumbling out of the door way, turning the corner and making her way onto the street on shaking legs. She could see Kaneki slung over the huge mans shoulder, and at that moment he raised his head, as if to look back on Anteiku and saw her standing there. Touka knew that in her current condition she wouldn't be able to even catch up to the group, let alone fight them. That didn't stop her from trying though, gritting her teeth at the pain that pulsated through her body. Finally she had pushed herself too far, tripping over herself and falling onto the sidewalk. She managed to raise her head enough to catch Kaneki's eye as the group was about to turn the corner. She managed to mouth the words "We will come for you." to him before they disappeared from view. As Kaneki was led further and further away, Touka cursed herself, before once more being embraced by the numbness of unconsciousness._

 _Flashback End_

"Hey, Shitty Nishiki." Touka said, in a voice that barely held back the anger that was practically flowing through her veins. Seeing Nishiki glance at her out of the corner of his eye, unwilling to fully take his focus off of the hulking monster in front of them, she continued "That's him. That's the guy who took Kaneki."

Without another word, the two dropped into more combat ready stances, legs widened and their Kagune emerging. Touka's single wing fanned out behind her, practically pulsing, reacting to it's mistress' anger. Nishiki's Kagune however, was less noticeably, his snake-like tail remaining inside his cloak and curling around his right leg.

As the two Anteiku workers prepared to fight, their opponent simply stood with a cocky grin, seemingly uncaring of the threat in front of him. "Well, well, well, what have we here? Ayato's sister correct? He prevented me from having some...fun with you last time." As he spoke his grin grew wider, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. "Since it seems he isn't here now, looks like I can enjoy my time with you two. Try not to break too soon."

Having enough of his speaking, Touka and Nishiki both dashed to their respective sides, seeking to divert Yamori's attention. After gaining some distance from her starting point, she fully faced her opponent, firing off a barrage of shards at the monster of a man. Her eyes widened however, as Yamori suddenly appeared in front of her. Drawing his arm back, he suddenly slammed it into her lithe body, sending her flying back toward the side of a building, the concrete cracking from the force. Only a strangled cry escaped from Touka's lips, her body reeling from both the pain and the sensation of air being forced out of it.

However, before Yamori could capitalize on this vulnerability, his second opponent showed himself, running up behind the white suited man Nishiki reared his leg back and snapped it into the side of Yamori, knocking him a bit away to help give Touka some breathing room.

With a great grunt of effort, Touka pried herself from the wall she had been forcibly acquainted with, and fell to her knees in front of it. taking a moment to ready herself, she slowly drew to her full height and looked back at the battle still raging. Nishiki seemed to have the advantage over Yamori, using his Kagune around one leg to leap circles around the larger man, taking his strikes whenever he could. However, the pure regeneration of the Rinkaku Ghoul meant Nishiki's attacks would already be healed by the time the next opening showed itself. They would need to up the amount of damage they had been giving out, and with her Ukaku, they might have the damage needed.

Unveiling her Kagune once again, Touka returned to the fray, this time jumping off the wall she had been slammed into, quickly gaining height and a birds eye view of the battle. Seeing Nishiki dash away from Yamori again, she took her chance, and launched a barrage down upon him, ripping his suit and causing the man to stagger from the surprise attack. As he turned his head up and prepared to finally break the annoying little bird, his world suddenly turned sideways as Nishiki took the opportunity to knock him on his side. As Yamori lay on the ground, Touka landed near Nishiki, turning to make sure he was alright. Suddenly his hand landed on her shoulder, and in a quiet whisper told her "That tower...if he's the guy that took Kaneki then he'll be there right?" Glancing at the tower Nishiki mentioned Touka noticed that it was the direction Yamori had come from. "Go on."

Hearing those words jolted her out of her thoughts, turning her surprised gaze at Nishiki, he continued "Yomo and the others should have heard the commotion by now, and are on their way. We'll hold them off here, you go and save the shithead."

Sending a wary glance toward the cloud of smoke and dust that still hid Yamori, Touka nodded, turning and rushing toward the tower, determined to save Kaneki. As she ran she constantly checked around to make sure no Aogiri Tree members would sneak up on her, but let her mind wander, thinking about how life would be once Kaneki would be saved. Hinami probably wouldn't let the boy out of her sight for days, not wanting to lose her Nii-san once again. Yomo and Nishiki would step up his training, and maybe even get him comfortable enough to use his Kagune in battle, like a true Ghoul. And Irimi and Koma would make sure he kept at his work ethic in Anteiku, allowing everyone to see him returning to work after the cafe's brief closing.

And of course, Touka herself would be along every step of the way, watching over Hinami as she played with her Nii-san, making sure neither of them got too out of hand. Training along with Kaneki, raising her own potential and making sure that the next time she fought Ayato, he would be the one going down with a single punch. Maybe after a couple weeks Kaneki would actually be able to spar against her without her having to hold back, wouldn't that be a sight! And of course, she would be working along with him in Anteiku, making sure he didn't mess up any orders, showing him how to pour a proper cup of coffee, maybe she should teach him how to make latte art, see if at the very least he could help with that.

'Yea, that will be fun. Seeing Shitty Kaneki back with everyone, wearing that stupid grin of his-' Touka tore herself out of her thoughts as she entered the tower, and was immediately repulsed by the smell. Though it was definitely dull and faded, there was a heavy smell of blood in the air, as if the entire building had been thoroughly painted in it. Shaking her head she did her best to ignore the smell and walked farther in, relying on her eyesight and intuition to face any oncoming threats. She walked for some time, always on alert, until she finally reached a larger room, filled with cells obviously used to house whomever Yamori wished. She cautiously approached one, and her eyes widened at who she saw inside.

"Banjo! What are you doing here?" Sitting in the cell was clearly the large bulky body of Banjo, the man who had come to try and warn Rize of Aogiri Tree's hunt. Upon hearing his name, Banjo looked up and gasped with surprise, rushing to the bars as if to make sure this wasn't just an illusion or one of Yamori's sadistic tricks.

"Touka-san!" he practically cried out, his eyes watering at the sight of a friendly face. His subordinates, or what was left of them, followed after him, silently thanking whatever Gods would listen to Ghouls for sending this savior. At Touka's insistence Banjo explained what had happened since returning to Aogiri Tree, the attempted escape, their capture by Yamori, and also Yamori's..."sessions" with Kaneki. After hearing the full story, Touka wanted nothing more than to turn around and turn Yamori into a giant pincushion. However, she managed to take a deep breath, and make the decision to save Kaneki...and then turn the ball of slime into a ball of pain.

As she turned to leave however, promising that she would return with Kaneki, Banjo held her back, saying "Be careful, Touka-san. Before he left Yamori seemed pretty happy with himself, and said we would have to clean a pretty big mess when he came back. I don't know what happened there but...just be careful alright?"

Giving a firm nod, Touka turned on her heel and ran further into the building, thankfully it seemed that all of Yamori's actual loyal subordinates were outside defending against the CCG assault. As she ran, she couldn't help but think that Banjo was overreacting, after all, it seems that Yamori wouldn't do anything that would actually kill Kaneki, though that was both a blessing and a curse it seemed. It would probably take Kaneki a while to get past this, but she was sure he would be able to return to how he used to be. After all, he had finally begun to accept what had happened with Rize, and even what Tsukiyama had put him through.

As she reached the end of the hall Banjo directed her down, she was set in her belief, pushing open the door she thought to herself 'Yea, pretty soon that idiot will flash that shitty grin of his at me-' Her thoughts came to a close as the door was finally open, revealing the room within, and the horror it contained. Her blood froze in her veins, eyes widened and her body unable even so much as breathe.

The room was covered in a dull red, blood splatters covered high on the walls, almost reaching the ceiling of the tall tower. There were chunks taken out of both the walls and the floor, from what appeared to be both bodies being slammed into them and missed punches and kicks. And in the center of it all, lay a single body, clothed in a white shirt now the same color as the rest of the room and a pair of black pants that had holes torn in them.

'That...that can't be Kaneki...right?' Touka's mind tried to convince her, but even she couldn't deny that there was only one person who could be in the room. Still, she tried to fool herself, 'He's not dead, of course not. Shitty Kaneki probably figured out a way to trick that dumb ass Yamori into thinking he was dead, so he could escape later. Of course...' With a shaky smile in place, Touka approached the body lying on the floor, hoping beyond hope that she was right. But, when she reached the body, and saw more of the...details, even she couldn't come up with an answer to it. His body lay on the ground, holes torn in both his shirt and pants appeared to not only be from the fighting, but beneath some of the holes it looked like chunks of the body had been torn off. Not only in the clothes, these chunks appeared to be torn out of various places on the body. The only part that seemed to be untouched was the head, where rather than his normal black, Kaneki seemed to be sporting hair that was pure white, tainted only by the blood that seemed to pool around his head, were it not for the somber setting, one could almost say the bloodstain formed a crown around the young mans head.

Touka felt her knees buckle beneath her, dropping to kneel beside the body of the one eyed Ghoul. Tears silently fell, as she mourned the body of a young boy, who had gone through so much torment and pain, only to have it finally end.

* * *

Authors Note: Hey all! Hope you enjoyed this story, couldn't seem to get the idea of the story out of my head, so I decided to write it down and here it is! As always, I would love to hear what you all think of it, so if you feel like it, go ahead and leave a review with your thoughts!


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